Poverty and Welfare in Colonial Nigeria, 1900-1954
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Authors
Usuanlele, Uyilawa
Date
2015-12-16
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Poverty , Social Welfare , Colonialism , Development , Nationalism , Labour , Peasants , Decolonization
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study examines the interface of poverty and development of state welfare
initiatives colonial Nigeria. It attempts to unravel the transformation and the nature and
character of poverty afflicting majority of Nigerians since the period immediately
preceding colonialism and under colonial rule. It looks at the causes and manifestations
of poverty as well as the nature of social welfare in pre-colonial Nigerian societies in
relation to the new forms of poverty that British Colonial policies visited on the society.
Poverty in the colonial period is shown to have been caused by changes in power
relations and accompanying administrative and economic reorganization of the society
which facilitated the diversion of labour, resources and surplus produce from family and
household use to the colonial state, firms and their agents. This new form of poverty was
manifested in the loss of family and household self-sufficiency and the inability to meet
personal survival needs and obligations, making the majority unable to participate fully in
the affairs of their communities. This dissertation looks at how the British Colonial State
tried to achieve its objective of exploitation and deal with the problem of poverty in its
various manifestations using indigenous institutions and practices and other nonindigenous
strategies in the face of growing African resistance and declining
productivity. It argues that over-aching strategy of development represented by the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940 and subsequent amendments and
community development were designed to co-opt the emergent civil society into
acquiescence with the social system and contain further resistance, and as such could not
provide welfare nor alleviate the problem of poverty.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-23 15:39:43.303
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License
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